Parents of Year 11s - the end is in sight

[228agreenend]

Hello everyone, new thread for the final push.

Shanghai, how come your 15yo is doing ASs? Are you in a different school system, or is he a particularly bright spark? Sorry if you've said before.

DD said the exam went better than expected. She was really nervous this morning because it is a subject she wants to do at A level, and is aiming for an A*.

She also said the unit 2 was similar to the practice paper she did last night. Was it the June 2014 paper BitOutOfPractice? And happy birthday for tomorrow.

DD said C2 was very easy, on the fence with C3.

DS1 is in the process of having a very dramatic haircut. Perhaps he left it until now because he was worried that his GCSE knowledge was stored in his hair?

Damn I thought DD's last exam (General Studies) was on Monday but it's Tuesday - draws the process out that bit longer!

Oh well only 2 more to go in total - wahay!!

DD's response to my text asking how it was

'not too bad'

I am glad we all have similarly minded DCs when it comes to responding.

DD said C2 was very easy, on the fence with C3

Ditto

dd had mixed feelings about this afternoon's Chemistry paper. OCR A 21st Century. I don't think afternoon exams suit her (fortunately nearly all other exams have been in the morning). I think she's dwelling a bit too much on what (may) have been incorrect rather than the other way round. One Physics exam left to complete additional Science then a long gap til the final DT exam on 27th June.
Received a letter from 1st choice sixth form college today for Introductory Day where they get to look round and have taster sessions on 3 subjects. She is considering changing one of her A level options now!

And another one down! 3 to go on Friday and we're over and out!

DS said Unit 2 was good and Unit 3 was OK. He panicked a bit last night, he said as they had rushed through Unit 3 towards the end of the syllabus there were a couple of things he wasn't sure about - after spending the night revising them they didn't even come up!

I think I'll be taking cakes into work on Friday for my lovely colleagues who have lived through these GCSE's with me. They know DS's exam timetable as well as I do!

Good Luck to all your DC's with exams tomorrow.

Today DS has finished his last full day of school (no study leave here). Tomorrow he has an afternoon's study leave to watch the footie except that he hates football so will probably be revising physics. On Friday they can leave after their exam so I'll be picking him up after 10am. Two more runs on the school bus ever!

Edexcel chemistry today, it was "fine".

NickName he's doing 12 subjects, as is compulsory at his school -I think that's way too many, I only did 8! Most subjects had 2-4 papers each.
The verdict on today's chemistry- pretty good, but he was annoyed that almost none of the calculations they'd spent ages revising came up!

DD said chemistry 2 and 3 were "pretty good"! Which I think is the most positive response yet!

She too said there were some identical questions to those in the past papers she has done this week.

A day off for her tomorrow then physics 2 and 3 on Friday.

6 left altogether!

She is starting to worry about further maths a bit now. Her school did it as an "extra" and the lessons were after school. The lessons stopped in March so it seems a long time ago now!

dd was happy with c2. Not quite so much c3 I think. Never mind, done now. She is celebrating as she 'only has good subjects left!' On to her favourite subjects, so hopefully things will feel a bit less pressured.

lol TheSecond - a bit like Samson then?

HesMyLobster has your dd seen Mr Bartons FM?

Ooh Thankyou Kitten I'll get her to have a look!
Is this the Maths version of Mr Bruff? If so that's exactly what we've been looking for!

12 subjects is rather excessive. You don't need that many for university.

DD is revising history she said for source paper she is stuck however.
because she can analyse a source but sometimes it isn't what the mark scheme says DD is wondering if she'll get zero marks for this or are sources open to different interpretations? I would have thought being history it would be open to interpretation. She can't see her teacher as said DD isn't working Thursday and DD is home Friday and Internet doesn't seem to be much help it's more help for the OCR course and DD is doing edexcel

Another vote for an 'easy' Chemistry paper today, so much so that DS is pretty certain he will choose the subject for A Level. Only choice he was wavering about.

@ TheSecond

DS2 has done 10 GCSEs in total, 9 this year, but hasn't done triple science or add maths like DS1 did. (He did 12 in 2014.)

DS3 will do 10 in total in 2018, including triple science. They are reducing number of subjects by one because the new curriculum is harder and covers quite a bit that used to be in AS, hence also dropping add maths as an extra one for top set maths.

Fantasy It's a few years ago now, but I used to mark GCSE papers (not History) and there were marks for alternative correct answers that don't appear on the final published mark-scheme. The published mark schemes would be too long if they included every single possible answer so tend to include the most common answers or those that are closest to what the examiner is looking for. I hope that makes sense.
My dd is currently taking a break from study by walking the dog!

DS has done 13 subjects in total, which we discussed at length with his teachers. He's coped fine to be fair, whether German ever makes it onto his CV is a different matter. [smile

DS is upstairs building a wardrobe, I took the easy option and walked the dog. This is phase two wardrobe construction - I said that they should build it in the room they wanted it but they didn't listen. The result was that they had to take it apart again as there was no way of getting it from room A to room B. It illustrated some basic geometry problems but we've done with maths now (no, you're never done with maths, the examinations are just of a more practical nature).

I'm sure it will be funny looking back on it in a few years but it wasn't very funny on Monday night.

Why 13?

Because he wanted to, and felt he could cope to be honest. However, some due to doing triple science, Business Fast Track, which is 2 GCSE's within the time frame of doing one, Ad Maths, and RE, which you have to do if you are in top set English.

The curriculum at DD's school only allows 10 subjects to be taken. DD is absolutely shattered and couldn't have coped with 10 in one go let alone 13.